It is our passion to support individuals, businesses, organisations and churches to develop and grow in their unique potential and success.

For over 35 years we have supported our customers to discover their future destination, to develop their skills, (leadership) competences, teamwork and organisations.

xpand stands for many things: progress, growing, acquiring, maturing, transition, spreading knowledge, expanding quality and quantity.

Our vision as the xpand South Africa team is to contribute to the dignity and destiny of our country.

In 1987, three friends (Paul Donders (Netherlands), Ingo Maxeiner (Germany) and Daniel Ehman (USA)) decided to combine their skills and vision: to connect excellent management training and coaching, in order to support individuals and organisations to combine their own skills and vision and to grow in a healthy sustainable way. To stimulate people and organisations to develop their leadership and to lead in a dignified and results-oriented way. There are currently 15 national xpand teams and over a 120 trainers, coaches, consultants and staff.

In the first year xpand focused on seminars and developed their first training product: POL (planning, organising, and leadership). During the years that followed, trainers, coaches and consultants like Michaela Kast and Vincent Zeylmans joined the company, most of them still are driving forces within xpand today. The initial focus was mainly on Germany, but xpand also conducted training courses in other countries around the globe like Columbia, the Netherlands, Nepal and Ukraine.

As the company grew in numbers and started to serve a wide range of clients, the decision was made to expand internationally. One of the co-founders, Paul Donders (at the time the managing director), moved to the Netherlands. In 1998 the Dutch company was established.

Between 2003 and 2007, xpand Switzerland, xpand Austria, xpand UK, and xpand Norway were established. In 2005, in light of these expansions, a coordinating holding was founded: xpand International.

In 2006, Paul Donders and Wolfgang Weidner (former Vice President at Arcelor) created the LOI program (Leaders of Influence), a mentoring program for young and ambitious professionals, which today has over 500 participants and more than 500 mentors.

Since 2008, xpand’s activities in France have grown exponentially as well and in 2011 the French xpand team was officially created. In 2012 xpand Hungary and xpand South Tyrol started.

In June 2011 the three leading partners of xpand Nederland undertook an exploratory trip to South Africa. They all became main cooperation partners in South Africa. During 2012 the first training courses were held in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg.

In 2014 we officially opened our xpand South Africa office in Pretoria, with Paul Donders, CEO of xpand International, as the managing director of xpand South Africa. During the following year we published our first book in South Africa: ‘Resilience – live healthier & perform better’, by Paul Donders.

Currently our South African team consists of 11 consultants and we work in 4 hubs to best serve our local customers: Pretoria/Johannesburg, Durban, Kimberly/Bloemfontein and Cape Town/Stellenbosch.

xpand stands for 5 Core Values

They are the foundation of our work and are expressed in our service, focus and quality.

Culture of appreciation

We appreciate every single human being and truly value their unique dignity. We aim to actively develop a culture of appreciation regarding: ourselves, others, organisations, tribes and cultures.

Servant leadership

We serve individuals and organisations and support them to find and fulfill their dignity and destiny. We serve and protect life in all of its variety, to stimulate healthy people, healthy relations, healthy organisations and a healthy environment.

Healthy relationships

We believe that a healthy life, organisation and society can only develop further if there is a good balance between individuality and community. Wherever possible, we are building bridges and connecting people with each other.

Self-responsibility and personal development

We encourage others in their search for and fulfillment of their dignity and destiny and foster self-responsibility throughout this process. We believe in the co-essentials of freedom and responsibility. Therefore we respect the individual freedom of every human person and strongly oppose any form of manipulation. At the same time we hold each person to their self-responsibility to grow into a healthy and mature personality. Furthermore, we believe in coaching leadership that assists individuals to develop and be empowered.

Creativity, entrepreneurship and social responsibility

We encourage people and organisations to discover and develop their creative potential and in doing so bring sustainable solutions to the world around them. Moreover, we challenge individuals to develop their self-leadership and entrepreneurship, to create or re-create products, services or organisations that will serve their customers in the best possible way. We are part of a movement of people and organisations that actively invest in a better and healthier society.

Quality, processes and mastery

We believe in the responsibility to produce quality in all that we do. By the quality of daily work, one expresses their deep respect for all those they are working for. We design our services in intelligent, understandable and logical processes. We do so in order to serve our customers, so that they can eventually use our models without further assistance to grow in their own professionalism.

xpand South Africa is part of the international xpand community, with further establishments in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, Hungary and South Tirol: international homepage.

xpand International consists of 120 professionals, with branches in 10 countries. All our branches are well embedded in their own culture and nationality. Simultaneously there is a strong connection between the various countries and national branches, enabling us to support each other and to provide you, our customer, with the best possible services.

We love to look ahead, beyond borders, inspired and full of anticipation towards a challenging and exciting future. It is a great privilege for us to be trusted, to support you in the development of your vision, strategy, passion and the growth of your employees and your organisation.